Fans were initally quite stunned to see Famke Jannsen in the teaser trailers for The Wolverine, given Jean Grey’s demise in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. But another character almost appeared in the film, and though it would have made some sense, she was cut for a good reason.

In an interview with CreativeScreenwriting.com, co-writer Mark Bomback revealed that Rogue was almost a factor in the film’s plot and may have made an appearance in early drafts.

“I love Rogue and I just think that there’s something about this idea that Rogue is tremendously empathetic but incapable of safe human contact. That always moved me and I thought that’s what really got to the heart of what makes the X-Men franchise so unique. So I was trying to do something with Rogue in the script. I even had a set of ideas that the old man possessed a version of Rogue’s power and that was going to be indicated by a white stripe in his hair.Eventually it became very goofy, and I threw it out because I started realizing throughout the script that it became more problematic than cool.”

“It’s no accident to me that in the first X-Men film the first two mutants that you really see who have a connection are Wolverine and Rogue. There’s something special between them, so I was trying to bring Rogue into it, but it just didn’t get there. I regretted there wasn’t a way to figure it out, but when I look at the film now, it would have stuck out if we tried to shoehorn her in there just because it was another character from the universe.”

The Wolverine is now playing in 2D and 3D theaters and has already grossed over $300 million worldwide, surpassing Bryan Singer’s original X-Men.